Photos: Soyuz Recovery Ops in Snowy Kazakhstan

In this wide shot framed by snow-covered ground and foggy skies, Russian support personnel work to help get crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan March 16, 2011. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander, and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103160031hq (16 March 2011) --- high res (0.3 M) low res (38 K)

Russian Search and Rescue personnel secure their helicopters shortly after arriving at Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on March 15, 2011 ahead of the next day's planned landing of the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander; and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri, both flight engineers. Kelly, Skripochka and Kaleri will be returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103150002hq (15 March 2011) --- high res (0.3 M) low res (62 K)

Russian support personnel work to help get crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander; and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri, both flight engineers, near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on March 16, 2011. Kelly, Skripochka and Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103160009hq (16 March 2011) --- high res (1.7 M) low res (95 K)

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka (left) and Alexander Kaleri (center), both Expedition 26 flight engineers; and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, commander, sit in chairs outside the Soyuz capsule just minutes after they landed near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on March 16, 2011. Kelly, Skripochka and Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103160005hq (16 March 2011) --- high res (4.4 M) low res (102 K)

A Russian all terrain vehicle (ATV) takes NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander, to a waiting helicopter shortly after the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft capsule landed with Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan March 16, 2011. Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103160038hq (16 March 2011) --- hi res (0.5 M) low res (57 K)

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander, looks out the window of a Russian Search and Rescue helicopter before the two-hour helicopter ride to Kustanay, Kazakhstan shortly after he and fellow crew members Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri landed in their Soyuz TMA-01M capsule near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on March 16, 2011. Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Skripochka and Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 201103160010hq (16 March 2011) --- high res (0.8 M) low res (99 K)